Michael Bradford of the winning team, Buccaneers, celebrates his team's victory by drinking from the championship trophy during the 2009 JMMB Cup Awards ceremony at the Sandals Golf and Country Club on Sunday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Golfers and golfing enthusiasts turned out in their numbers to witness the Buccaneers of Caymanas clinch the inaugural 2009 Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) Cup in an exhilarating final that culminated at Sandals Golf and Country Club on Sunday.

The Buccaneers having won all four tournaments leading up to the final were the favourites to win from the get-go against their opponents, Advantage Generals. The winners, captained by Metry Seaga, were ahead for long periods on Sunday leading 5-3 at one point. But Advantage fought back to level the game 5-5 by the 18th hole.

Both teams headed into a nail-biting play-off. Michael Bradford, who won all his matches from the 12th at 8 and 6, and was more experienced in the match format, brought it home for the Buccaneers ahead of Richard White of Advantage.

Perfect script

"We knew it would be a hard fight ... but golf is the big, big winner today," Seaga said following his team's emphatic win. "It was phenomenal and it came down as we all expected. We couldn't have scripted it any better in the end, and we just are very, very grateful," he said.

Seaga said they knew from the beginning if the game went into a play-off that they were going to play Bradford. "He has been our form player in the last six weeks. He was playing fantastic," he said.

Bradford said he told everyone from the start of the competition that they were going to win. "Our game was pretty much in shape so we pulled it off," he said.

Captain of runners-up Advantage Generals, Sean Morris, said the match was filled with excitement from the start and they knew it was going to be a tough match-up with the Buccaneers.

"We were well-balanced in some areas and the guys went out there and did their best," Morris said.

He also thought that White had a better advantage against Bradford as he had more green to work with. "The shot that Bradford had to execute was just over the bunker. White just didn't make the shot and we can understand that," Morris said.

Adrenaline

White said it was all adrenaline for him. "The tee-shot was OK, but I just over-rotated on the second shot and it bunkered on me. I tried to come back, had a chance, but it was just not to be," he said.

In the third-place play-off, Ocean Spray defeated Sports Max 4.5-5.5. Both teams were tied 4.5 going into the 17th hole. Renee Phillips sank his par putt to halve the hole and won his match 1-0 to clinch a 5.5-4.5 victory.

JMMB Eagles also defeated Sandals Surfers 6-4 to take the fifth and sixth place spots, respectively. The most outstanding golfer award went to 11-year-old Danielle Morris of Advantage Generals.

Imani Duncan of main sponsors JMMB thanked the teams for making the event an "absolutely fantastic one". The competition, she said, coincided with the core values of JMMB that included working as a team, integrity and honesty, and they were pleased to have been associated with the competition.